The present invention is generally directed to multi-dwelling, apartment-building automation and, more particularly, to an automated, smart, electronic and multi-purposed doorman-like system that is focused on providing remote monitoring of apartment renters' compliance with rental regulations and agreements, improved access to the building lobby area to residents, visitors, delivery persons and maintenance people, improved intercom capabilities between apartment dwellers and the entranceway or foyer area using visual and audio interactive systems, and improved communications between building operators and persons entering their buildings.
Conventional products and tools currently utilized by multifamily building operators to monitor activity in and around building entranceways and foyers, e.g., using video cameras and standard intercom systems, provide only very basic audio visual tracking of building entryway traffic. The existing systems are inadequate, particularly with the recent explosion of renters engaging in illegal subletting of apartments, for example, through the widely known AIRBNB service which tempts and allows renters to violate their rental Agreements and exposes other dwellers in the building to strangers, and occasional visitors whose credentials to live, roam through and use the building's common facilities have not been properly investigated.
In addition, the existing systems are rather cumbersome, require labor intensive security and access control, and provide little oversight or monitoring of maintenance in building and scarce technology for tracking/interacting with tenants.
Also, the primitiveness of existing systems results in inefficient, decades old intercom technology being utilized, deliveries being left unattended in the lobby or at nearby pay services, and the use of keys and fobs that are prone to being lost and expensive to replace.
To the present inventor's knowledge, existing systems lack the technology to assist in tracking/interacting with visitors, which results in missing important guests, and an inadequate tracking of children and dog walkers and a lack of more efficient communication with management regarding both building management and maintenance issues.
Several vendors presently provide entranceway-based, doorman-like systems, as well as communication platforms with some similar features to the present invention. Among these existing systems are those that are advertised on-line and known as: Amazonlocker (www.amazon.com); August (www.august.com); Buildinglink (www.buildinglink.com); Buildingsnitch (www.buildingsnitch.com); Butterflymx (www.butterfly.com); Gateguard (www.Gateguard.xyz.com); Kisi (www.getkisi.com); Latch (www.latchaccess.com); Lockitron (www.lockitron.com); Packageconcierge (www.packageconcierge.com); Skybel (www.skybel.com); Subletalert (www.subletalert.com); Subletspy (www.sublet.spy.com) and Virtualdoorman (www.virtualdoorman.com); as well as others.
With further reference to the prior art, U.S. Patent Publication US 2009/0141117 describes a method and apparatus for providing lockers in multi-apartment buildings connected via an interface to a video interphone system via a local guardsman or a virtual guardsman over a network.
U.S. Patent Publication US 2016/0247340 describes an automation system for a building lobby which observes guests to residents, predicts a user profile associated with the guest and invites an administrator from an automation system to create a profile of the guest. The system stores biometric identifiers with a visitation pad and determine if the guest requires a profile.
U.S. Patent Publication 2011/0071951 is directed to a system for monitoring occupancy of a rental property and its focus is primarily to detect, for example, by monitoring the usage of utilities, whether a tenant is actively occupying a rental property such as an apartment.
U.S. Patent Publication 2014/0040054 is directed to a housing services Kiosk which is primarily focused on an electronic system for leasing and services for multi-family residential housing. It enables tenants to make rental payments or for third parties to view available apartments and communicate with the leasing agency.
The contents of the aforementioned United States publications are fully incorporated with the reference herein.